Pampanga governor Lilia Pineda stressed that she wants every Kapampangan in each barangay to have access to education regardless of age and financial status during a consultative meeting with the barangay executives of the 2nd district held in Lubao Gym on Thursday.
The governor appealed for the help of the barangay captains to find all out of school youth (OSY), drop-outs, parents and illiterates and help them be educated through the projects and programs of the provincial government and the Department of Education.
She deemed it important for every Kapampangan to at least get a high school diploma as this is their gateway to uplifting their lives and be productive citizens of the community.
“Educating them is also a way of keeping them away from bad peers and ease our problem on drug addicts and other law offenders,” Pineda said.
DepEd education program supervisor Roel Bondoc discussed with the village chiefs the significance of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) which is an informal form of education that aims to cater illiterate out-of-school children, youth and adults, to develop basic literacy skills.
The education department is implementing literacy mapping to get the profile of the community and convince the out-of-school youth and adults to participate in the ALS literacy sessions and livelihood skills training in the division.
Bondoc urged the barangay officials to share in the vision of ‘Zero OSY (out of school youth) Philippines and the battle-cry ‘Walang Kabataang Maiiwan sa Pampanga’.
He also wants the local government units (LGUs) to adopt ‘Abot-Alam’ , a mandate of the DepEd order no.14, s. 2014, with a vision of helping community-based youth through opportunities for education, possible career and employment.